Something Worth Waking Up For
by lilbreck
Summary: Bonnie copes (or doesn't) with being immortal. {future fic with background Caroline/Klaus}


Once upon a time, Bonnie was just a girl in a small town. She had dreams, like any other girl, and she was happy. But the world came in, cruel and without mercy, and took, and took, and took. She loved, lost, died, and was reborn. And now a thousand supernatural deaths have passed through her and, though they found a way to end the pain, she still saw every one.

As the decades passed –and she was beginning to understand the curse of immortality—she slept more and more while eating less and less. Her friends slowly stopped coming by to see her, with one bright and shining exception who brought the light of a hundred days with her despite her dark nature. Caroline would come to her room, crawl into her bed, and tell her every little detail of the day. Bonnie just let the words roll over her, the sound of her friend's voice giving her comfort where nothing else would.

Then, one day, things changed. Caroline came in full of nervous energy. She rambled on about a war in New Orleans going horribly wrong –that would explain why so many vampire, werewolf, and hybrid dead had passed through recently—and about the need for a change of scenery. For a horrible moment, Bonnie felt a stab of panic and fear break through her numbness. Was Caroline going to leave her? Before she could give voice to her objection, Caroline continued on.

"You don't have to do anything. We'll do all the moving, and I'll even help you get cleaned up and dressed. Who knows, maybe you'll even want to get out and explore a new place. Even if you don't, we'll make sure you have a very impressive view from your bed."

Though she couldn't really speak through the lump in her throat, she reached out and squeezed Caroline's hand, giving her a watery smile. Perhaps if she wasn't so numb to everything, she would have raised an objection to essentially running away with –not to mention living with—Klaus and his family. As it was, she could only be grateful that Caroline wasn't leaving her.

Caroline followed through on her promise. The view –and every view after that—from her bed was beyond impressive. And her friend never stopped coming to her room. As the years and decades passed, Bonnie began to use their nightly chats to mark the passing of days. Every morning, she would wake up to the running of bath water knowing that, if left to her own devices, she would have never found the energy or willpower to actually prepare a bath, take it, and clean up after.

It wasn't all perfect, though. Once Bonnie managed to pick up bits and pieces of what seemed to be an ongoing argument. Suddenly Rebekah's voice rose above the others.

"I don't see what you're even doing here. You're not family, and neither is that useless lump of a witch lying upstairs."

This was followed by the sound of a slap that Bonnie could only guess had to have been enough to break a jaw if the sound managed to reach her. The muffled sounds of Caroline's retort followed, too low for Bonnie to make out. However, she was able to make out the sound of a door down the hallway from her room slamming open against the wall followed by Klaus' voice, filled with barely restrained anger.

"You'll do well to remember, dear sister, that this is _my_ home. I invited both Caroline and Bonnie to travel with me, while _you_ invited yourself. If you find the living arrangements so distasteful, perhaps you should invite yourself out of my home."

She didn't hear any other arguments after that, though she was occasionally aware of both Rebekah and Elijah's voices from time to time. Beyond that, life continued at a slow crawl for her, the monotony interrupted by an occasional change of country. Before one such move, Bonnie picked up from Caroline's ramblings that they moved so much because Klaus was searching for something, though she didn't seem sure exactly what. The subject was never brought up again, and they settled into life in a new location with little fuss.

One day, however, the routine changed. Instead of her friend crawling into bed with her, she woke up that evening with Klaus sitting in a chair he had moved beside her bed.

"Caroline had to leave for a bit. Stefan seems to have gotten himself near the edge of a ripper episode and she couldn't leave him to his own devices. I know I'm not who you would want here, but she wouldn't want you left alone, little witch."

For the next month, instead of hearing about new foods, interesting people, and historical facts Caroline had managed to pick up from her outings with the Mikaelson brothers –never Rebekah, as she seemed to blame Caroline for any distance remaining between Klaus and his siblings—the conversations were now filled with talk of powerful magic users. It was in this month that Bonnie finally learned what Klaus was searching for. He believed there was someone out there who could help bring his brothers back and who could make Caroline invulnerable. It was this last bit that really caught Bonnie's attention.

She could hear the faint hope in her voice as she falteringly said, "If we can make her invulnerable…"

"She can live forever, and we'll never have to lose her. You'll never have to watch her cross through you to the other side."

Over that month, as Klaus told her more and more about his progress, she could feel herself slowly coming out of her listless state. Soon it wasn't just the evening time spent hearing about what he had discovered. The mornings were soon filled with her giving him questions to ask and avenues to explore. She would sit in her bath with the door open, absently washing herself as he talked to her from the other side of the door, sitting against the door jamb and always facing away –it should have shocked her that he could managed to find any respect for her, but she was too consumed with possibilities.

As Klaus drew closer to an answer, Bonnie found herself spending more and more time, not only out of bed, but out of her room as well. During the day she would be buried in grimoires that Klaus had collected; at night she would dissect and analyze every scrap of information he had found. It was just as they had found what felt like a firm lead, one that was so solid that Bonnie had just informed Klaus that she would be going out with him next time, that Caroline came home.

Though Bonnie could see the excitement and the urge to bombard her with questions in her friend's eyes, Caroline calmly put down her bags and walked over and wrapped her arms around Bonnie.

"Welcome back," was whispered against her neck, and she could feel the tears that were falling from Caroline's eyes.

If she hadn't already decided to help bring back Klaus's brothers to make sure that he didn't try and separate her and Caroline –the threat was never even implied, but the fear was always there—then those tears alone would have convinced her. Caroline had stayed with her, even when she had nothing to give in return, when there were times she didn't even have the energy to speak. The thought of being without Caroline and her love was unbearable.

For her smile, Bonnie would watch the world burn, if that's what this lead to. Hell, she would strike the match herself.


End file.
